Blogs from Aswan, Upper Egypt, Egypt, Africa - page 6

From Cairo we set out to Aswan by overnight train. What was supposed to be a twelve hour train ride turned out to be 15 hours. Aswan marks the country’s ancient southern frontier. In ancient times, it was of strategic importance serving as a garrison town for military campaigns against Nubia, its quarries provided the valuable granite used for so many sculptures and obelisks, and it was a prosperous marketplace at the crossroads of the ancient caravan routes. Here the Nile is wide and stunningly beautiful, flowing gently down from Lake Nasser. Aswan is also the site of the Old Cataract Hotel & Spa. It was in this hotel that Agatha Christie is said to have written part of her novel Death on the Nile and the hotel featured in the movie. Its banks are lined ... read more

I woke up before Michael. I glanced at my watch and it was 9:00am. It wasn’t a bad night’s sleep at all considering we were on a moving train the whole time. Almost as if the conductor was listening for movement, he knocked on our door and asked if we were ready for breakfast. I replied yes and Michael jumped right out of bed at the mention of food. Men. We were given assorted pastries, jam and tea. Not too bad. As we ate we admired the view out our window. The farms along the Nile were luscious and green. Egyptians were hard at work towing the fields. The handmade scarecrows made me laugh to myself. They were literally t-shirts on a cross with some metallic ribbon tied to the top. It is simple, yet probably ... read more

A sleepless night on the night train to Aswan - lights on, legs bent with no hope of stretching out, loud arabic ring tones, smokey carriages, and then the conductor tapping his stick to check my ticket when I had finally fallen asleep! 12 hour journey to Aswan travelling next to the Nile and with lots of lush greenery out the window - fields, bullrushes, palm trees, camels, donkeys, goats. People are working in the fields, riding donkeys, carrying things on their heads. Aswan is warmer than Cairo and a nice change from a chaotic sprawling city. Went to a Nubian village, Abu Simbel, Philae Temple, and Aswan Souk which went on for miles. Stayed at Orchida St George, Sharia Mohammed Khalid. Good hotel, basic, clean, central. US$25-35.... read more

Hello all, I'm actually writing this a day later in Aswan where I've finally had time to catch up with everything!! We were up early in the morning for a very busy day around Cairo. There are a total of 15 in the group a and a fairly even mix of boys and girls. There's Inge (dutch), Suzanna (Scot), Kim (Aussie), George (Kiwi), Marianna and Joe (English), and then we also met Emma and Jason (Kiwis), Q (South Korea), and Greg, Jason, and Paul (Aussies). We're all mixed between 18-32. A good group so far!! We had our breakfast of breads and eggs (scrambled/boiled/omelette) with coffee, and then met our tour guide Ishmet and our security man. The police presence is not very evident since the revolution as the people do not trust them and they ... read more

Thank goodness we left Cairo today, Friday, 1/28/11. There were to be more protests and no one knows what will happen. We do have the ability to access the internet on the ship but it is being blocked by the government. So far, we’ve had a snow storm and now rioting in Cairo. Maybe this trip wasn’t meant to be! I’ll be writing this as I have time and will post to the blog whenever we get internet access. Today, Friday, 1/28, started with a 3:15am wake up call and back to the Cairo airport at 4:30am. I got to bed last night about midnight. We flew to Aswan, in southern Egypt, and then waited for the other ½ of the rest of our group to come in on the next flight. Egypt is called Upper ... read more